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My boys and the Hot Wheels Shoebox

Dave Farquhar Toy trains December 19, 2014December 18, 2014christmas, christmas shopping, Hot Wheels, matchbox, toys r us, train layout

I took the boys to Toys R Us the other night to do some Christmas shopping and buy a little (very little) something for them. I ended up finding 99 cents worth of something for me, too, in the diecast aisle. I like to buy Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars and un-hotrod them for my train layout. And the Hot Wheels shoebox, with a small amount of work, looked like it would make a very passable 1949 Ford. So I bought it.

The next morning, my youngest brought the car to me as I was getting ready for work. “Daddy, will you open it?”

What to look for in a cheap laptop in late 2014

Dave Farquhar Hardware November 21, 2014November 20, 2014acer, amd, Bing, christmas, christmas shopping, chrome, intel, Intel Atom, Windows 10, windows 7, windows 8

So the sales fliers for the 2014 Christmas shopping season are out, and I’m seeing tons of cheap laptops. If you only have $200 to spend, they have something for you.

Some of them look like they’re even worth having. Yes, I’m shocked too. Here’s how to figure out which ones are worth taking home, and which ones are best left for some other sucker. Whether you’re shopping for yourself or someone else, you’ll probably want to keep the following in mind.

Why the Target data breach news keeps getting worse, and what you need to do

Dave Farquhar security January 13, 2014January 11, 2014Adobe Acrobat, breach, christmas, christmas shopping, Data breach, DBA, Debit card, Mandiant, passwords, vulnerability

As you probably know, last year some still-unknown criminals stole a whole bunch of credit and debit card data from Target. And the story keeps changing. First there weren’t any PINs. Then they got the PINs, but no personally identifiable data. Well, the latest news indicates they got credit card numbers, names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and for a whole lot more people, and probably from a longer length of time than just late November to mid-December.

There are a few things you ought to do if you shop at Target, which many people do. Read more

An Amazon shopping trick

Dave Farquhar Saving money December 2, 2012December 1, 2012christmas, christmas shopping

I alluded to this the other day, but some people might find it worth mentioning in its own right. As most people know, Amazon offers free shipping on orders over $25. And if you’re buying something small, shipping can end up being a large chunk of the total bill.

So when buying something sold directly by Amazon or fulfilled by Amazon, you can save the shipping by building a shopping list, if you can put off the purchase a little while.